Return of the Storm
by ariapyrasyria
Summary: Two years after the Second Giant War, someone is sending newer, deadlier monsters after one god in particular...Poseidon.
1. Chapter 1

AN: So I decided to rewrite Green Eyes (one of my old stories) because the plot wouldn't get out of my head. Enjoy!

* * *

Edward Cullen was no stranger to danger. He was, however, a stranger to being clueless, and it wasn't a feeling he enjoyed. Here he was, standing in front of some homicidal maniac, and he had _no clue_ what was happening.

Let's back up a little.

Edward Cullen did not like to be kept waiting. Which was exactly what his brother Emmett was doing at the moment. Being immortal, he figured that his entire life was comprised of sitting around waiting for things to happen, and he didn't like doing that when he could be doing something more productive. Seeing his girlfriend, for example.

It was thoughts like these that occupied his mind while strolling through the forest. Having finished his hunting early, and now having to wait on Emmett to take his frustration out on a bear, Edward decided to go for a little walk. Through the thick trees, he could see a scattering of buildings, most likely a small town. He stopped at the edge of the tree lining, taking stock of his surroundings. Very few buildings, most looking very run-down, and not a human in sight. Huh.

He cast out his mind, searching for thoughts.

 _Wonder if there'll be any business today_ , a morose female voice penetrated his mind.

 _Fishing lure, fishing lure…_ a male voice.

 _Kind of odd to see a girl wandering around here all alone…huh, that looks an awful lot like blood…holy_ shit _is that a—_ the voice cut off suddenly.

Before he even had time to think, Edward was taking off in the direction of those last thoughts. The way it had cut off abruptly made his hair stand on end. He followed the direction it had come from, keeping on the watch for anything smelling like blood. He couldn't afford to be tempted so close to finishing a hunt. The trail of thoughts lead directly to what seemed to be a deserted alleyway, but something told Edward to look closer.

The air in front of him seemed to shimmer, almost like someone had been holding a velvet curtain before his eyes.

Which was how, of course, he found the teenaged girl, covered with blood, and holding a very long, very wicked looking knife.

* * *

Edward wasn't sure how to confront a homicidal maniac. That had never come up when Carlisle taught him how to navigate the vampire world. Fortunately, the girl with the deadly knife was more concerned about the body in front of her.

She was crouched on the ground, her foot pressing into the throat of a vaguely humanoid figure, but Edward was sure his vampire eyes were finally deceiving him. If he didn't know better, he'd say the body looked like a boy with angel's wings. The body was going in and out of focus, almost like it was made of… smoke? Little flashes of yellow and purple arced across the boy's skin and wings, like lightning was trying to escape. As he watched, the girl brought her knife up and slashed through where his throat _should_ be, but all he could see was gray smoke and colored arcs of electricity.

Edward inhaled rapidly and then blocked off his airway, expecting his senses to be assaulted with the scent of fresh human (or angel?) blood. What he wasn't expecting was the angel-boy hybrid to let out a terrifying wail and burst into a shower of golden powder, scattering into the wind. He almost stepped back to avoid the shower, before realizing that the powder was only travelling _up_.

"Stupid _venti_ ," the girl said, sliding her knife back into a sheath hanging from her waist.

Was Edward going insane, or did this girl just curse Starbucks drinks?

She picked herself up off the ground, dusting off the remains of the gold powder. Only now was Edward noticing what she looked like. This girl couldn't have been more than fifteen or sixteen, but she carried herself with the burden of someone much older. Her clothes were ragged and bloodstained – it looked like the edges of her gray sweatshirt had been singed by fire. Her pants were riddled with holes, the red stains covering the cloth telling Edward that the holes probably weren't for the aesthetic. Her jet black hair was doing it's best to escape a haphazard ponytail, falling across striking green eyes…eyes that, Edward noticed, were staring straight at _him_.

The realization came a little late.

Within the space of a millisecond, the girl had stepped into his personal space, the scary knife directly at his throat.

"Who are you?" she demanded. Her voice sounded like pure anger and hatred personified, not something he expected from a teenager. "Did you send the _venti_?"

"The…what?" he managed, his vocal chords under severe pressure from her blade.

"Who sent you?" she snarled, and pressed the knife a little further into his throat.

Now, Edward was pretty sure a knife couldn't hurt his vampire skin, but the way his throat was starting to burn, he didn't feel like taking any chances.

"I…" he coughed the word out. "I don't know what you're talking about, I only just saw you stab the smoke—"

"You could _see_ that?" she sounded angrier, and he tried to step back only to find himself back into a corner. He had to inhale soon; his air supply was running out fast. And this girl was covered in blood.

"Look—" he choked, the cool metal blade not doing any favors for his throat. "Look, I don't know who you are. I just heard noises—" he used the last of his air.

The girl seemed to only get angrier, but Edward could do nothing but try to inhale. He gasped for breath, probably sounding very un-vampire-like, but the girl seemed to take pity on him and stepped back. Immediately, he crumbled to the ground like the incredibly coordinated immortal he was, and took a deep breath. He expected a wave of bloodlust to wash over him. Instead, he got the scent of a refreshing sea breeze. He opened his eyes, convinced that he was hallucinating and he'd somehow ended up near the beach, but all he saw was an angry girl and a very sharp knife, standing over him and looking decidedly unmerciful.

"Look," she started, her face still pulled taut in anger. "I don't know who you are and why you can see through the Mist, but I don't want any trouble."

She really needed to work on her facial expressions, he decided.

The girl turned around, presumably to leave, when Edward found his voice.

"Wait!" he croaked.

She pivoted so fast he almost missed the movement, her hand going automatically to her sheathed knife.

Edward held his hands up in surrender. "No, wait, I don't mean any harm," he did his best to sound convincing and non-threatening. "Who are you?"

The girl looked him up and down, her green eyes resembling an infrared laser more than regular eyes, and shook her head. "It's better if you don't know." She turned and walked down the alleyway, disappearing between the buildings.

Edward stared after her in shock. He wasn't sure how to react to what had just happened, but he knew he had to tell Carlisle right away. Only, he didn't know how exactly he was going to explain all this.

It was only as he was picking himself off the ground, preparing to find Emmett, did he realize – throughout the entire bizarre interaction, the girl's mind had been completely and utterly _silent_.


	2. Chapter 2

Edward couldn't get the memory of that girl out of his head. It was at times like this that he was grateful for the privacy of his mind. If any one of his siblings had been able to read his thoughts, they would've deemed him insane.

He had spoken at length to Carlisle about his experience in the alley, but the older vampire didn't have any insight into what happened.

 _"You're saying this girl stabbed… a smoke angel?" Carlisle furrowed his brow like he wasn't sure whether to believe his son or put him in a nice padded cell._

 _"Yes, Carlisle, I'm sure," Edward said, agitated at having to repeat himself. "I don't know how or why, but it was definitely the wings of an angel on a human-shaped boy. And it wasn't a solid body – more like someone consolidated enough smoke to fill the outline of a snow angel."_

 _"And she called it a…macchiato?"_

 _"A_ venti _. I thought she was just cursing out Starbucks."_

 _"The word 'venti' means 'storm spirit' or 'storm wind' in Latin, I think," Carlisle mused._

 _"But there wasn't a storm anywhere nearby!" Edward exclaimed. "And I don't think storms take the shape of angels, so what on earth was going on?"_

 _"I don't know what to tell you, son," Carlisle sighed. "I guess there are things that even four-hundred-year-old vampires haven't seen."_

"Edward?" Bella's voice shocked him out of his thoughts. "Are you alright?"

Edward looked at his girlfriend. Her concerned face made him regret spending so much time pondering this strange girl, when he could've been enjoying Bella's company instead.

"Sorry, love," he smiled reassuringly. "Just worried about Jasper. I think he's going a little crazy without being able to see Alice while we're at school." It was an easy excuse to use, even if it was untrue, as he had implored Carlisle to keep the alley embarrassment to himself. After all, it wasn't like Edward would see that girl again, and he didn't want to worry his family unnecessarily.

"So, apparently there are two new juniors who just joined school today," Alice said, settling herself gracefully across the lunch table. "A guy and a girl, from New York."

Bella raised her eyebrows. "So late in the semester? It's November, they probably have a lot of catching up to do."

"That's the thing," Alice said, her eyes shining with the opportunity to share fresh gossip. "They're supposedly insanely smart. They're both in senior-level AP classes, except for English, but that's just because the administration wouldn't let them skip through junior English."

"And they're human?" Edward asked, his mouth tilting up in amusement. "Usually we only see kids like that when they've already gone through high school once."

"Oh, they're human," Alice nodded. "They smell a little weird, but that might just be because I'm not used to their scent yet."

"Hmm," Bella hummed, settling herself against Edward's side. "Maybe we should invite them to sit with us. I know what it's like to be the new kid in school."

Edward kissed the side of her head. She was so thoughtful and compassionate. He loved that in her.

Alice frowned. "They don't seem pretty outgoing or social. I've been hearing about the girl's resting bitch face all morning. And the guy straight up turned down Lauren when she hit on him in Calculus."

"What?" Edward said, intrigued. "Almost every guy in this school lusts after that girl in his thoughts. God only knows why."

"She has a certain appeal," Bella mused. "If you're into psychotic blondes."

"I'm pretty sure they're dating," Alice said. "People said they were holding hands in the hallway."

"Look, is that them?" Bella sat up, looking in the direction of the cafeteria doors. "Wow, okay, they're definitely dating—"

Edward sat up straight, his arm falling from Bella's shoulders. If his heart had still been beating, it would've stopped when he saw the two new students. It was _the girl_ , the one from the alley – the same jet-black hair, dangerous aura, and startlingly green eyes. She was walking with the other new student – a tall boy with chocolate-colored hair and leather jacket. His arm was thrown casually over her shoulders; their heads bent together sharing a private joke.

Edward choked on his breath. _This can't be happening_ , he thought. _What are the odds of her being a new student at Forks High? Does she remember seeing me?_

He got his answer a moment later, when the girl's eyes drifted in his direction. Before he could avert his stare, her piercing gaze was focused on him, and it was all he could do not to start hyperventilating like a mere human. Her face went from a laugh to panicked in a millisecond. Her eyes widened, flashing dangerously, with the same expression she'd had before she drove her knife into that _venti_.

"Edward?" Alice asked, noticing his sudden unease. "Are you alright?"

He couldn't speak, his voice trapped in his throat like the girl's knife was still pressing into it.

"Edward, what's going on?" Bella's eyes moved back and forth between the two new children and her boyfriend.

"I…I _know_ that girl," Edward breathed. The girl's eyes were still boring into him, and it was only when her boyfriend tugged her in another direction that she turned away.

"What?" Alice leaned across the table. "How? They only arrived in Forks yesterday, according to the gossip."

"She…" Edward paused. "I ran into her after a hunt. I told Carlisle about it, but I don't think that girl is entirely human."

"Okay, we're discussing this when we get home," Alice decided. "I don't know what's going on, but I don't think we should talk about it here." She turned around to observe the subjects of her consternation.

Across the cafeteria, the girl and the boy were sitting at a lunch table facing Edward, Alice, and Bella. Half the student body was staring at new pair, but Edward didn't think that was why they looked worried. They had their heads bent together again, but this time neither was smiling. He focused on them with his vampire hearing, but all he heard were words in a language that he couldn't quite understand.

"Guys, don't stare at them so obviously," Bella hissed. "That's so rude."

"All the other kids are doing it," Alice said. "I'm sure they're used to it by now." She paused, tilting her head as if trying to decipher something. "Edward, can you understand what they're saying? It doesn't sound like English to me."

Edward shook his head. "I can't. I can't hear their minds either. I mean, I knew I couldn't hear the girl's mind, but I can't pick up anything from the guy either."

Alice's brow furrowed. "That's unusual. Is it like Bella's silence, or something different?"

"I don't know." His frustration leaked into his voice. "I have no idea what I'm looking at." He waded through the thoughts of other students, searching for any information on these strange new students. "Their names are Aria and Alex, according to Jessica. And according to Lauren, Aria's not pretty enough for Alex."

"I'd have to disagree," Bella said, analyzing the two. "She's downright beautiful. I wish I had eyes like that."

Edward was too distracted to comment that he preferred Bella's eyes to any other.

"Who's staring now?" Alice teased. "The guy's not bad looking, either. They make a pretty cute couple."  
"I'm not really worried about how cute they are, I just want to know what they're doing here," Edward said. "I don't like not knowing what's going on."

Alice put a reassuring hand on his arm. "It'll be alright. We can talk to Carlisle when we get back, and you have to tell us the whole story of how you met this girl."

Edward nodded, still staring across the cafeteria.

"Come on, Edward, it's not like they're the Volturi," Bella said, tucking herself under his arm again. "Calm down."

"I'm sorry," he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "I'm just worried. I don't think them being here means anything good."

"I guess we'll find out," Alice said, throwing one last glance over her shoulder at the pair.

* * *

Edward wasn't expecting the girl to be in his AP Physics class. He should've been more prepared, considering Alice mentioned that the new kids were in some senior classes. He stopped short in the doorway, seeing her unmistakable black hair at the front of the room.

"Ah, Mr. Cullen," Dr. Jefferson said, looking up from a paper schedule. "Would you mind taking our new student to the office? It seems they forgot to give Ms. Jackson here the required materials for this class."

The girl – Aria, he mentally corrected himself – regarded him with a cool stare, her green eyes piercing him like a knife. She didn't seem fazed in the slightest at seeing him again, her face arranged in an impassive expression. It made him feel like a fish floundering out of water, and he had the sudden urge to turn and run away at vampire speed.

"Sure," Edward said, realizing a little late that he'd been silent for too long. He shouldered his backpack, steeling himself with a breath. "Come with me."

As he turned to exit the classroom, he was hit with a sudden feeling that it would be highly dangerous to turn his back on this girl. He shook the thought away, instead turning to her with a forced smile.

"So…um…" he didn't know what to say. _Enjoyed any good alley killings lately?_

"Look, I didn't expect to see you here," Aria interrupted. She was looking down at the floor, her arms folded across her chest. She was wearing the same sweatshirt and jeans from the alley, which struck Edward as strange. "I don't know what you think you saw, but I'd really appreciate it if you didn't mention it to anyone."

"What I think I saw…you mean how you stabbed a smoke angel?" Edward said drily.

"A smoke angel?" She looked up at him momentarily, her mouth turned up almost like she was going to laugh. Instead, she regarded him like he was insane.

"Would you mind explaining to me what exactly was going on in that alley?" Edward asked.

"I don't know," Aria said, shifting uncomfortably. "What do you think you saw?"

"That's not an answer," he said. "Whatever you stabbed definitely didn't look normal." He knew he was pushing his luck, and he didn't expect her to willingly offer information.

"How would you know? Do you go around stabbing things to see what would happen?" she deflected.

He paused in the hallway, almost ready to scream with frustration. He wanted to ask this girl so many questions, but he had a feeling none of them would be answered.

Aria sighed, stopping a little bit in front to face him head-on. "I don't want any trouble, alright? Just stay out of my way and we'll stay out of yours." She turned around and began walking in the direction of the office.

 _Wait_ , Edward wanted to yell after her. So many questions burned through his mind, most prominently _are you even human_ , but all he could do was watch her walk into the office.


	3. Chapter 3

Aria wasn't used to being the Olympian's personal handmaiden. It was only the past couple of years, after the Second Giant War, that they'd started taking notice of her. It made sense, because they'd only known of her existence for approximately that long.

With everything said and done, her father, Poseidon, had done an excellent job hiding her. It was for her safety, he'd said.

It was rare for an Olympian to have two children with the same mortal. It was even more rare for that Olympian to be Poseidon, god of the sea and one of the Big Three. Especially if said god had sworn a pact with his brothers not to sire any more demigod children.

Poseidon knew that his son's existence would be testing his brothers' patience, but he knew that adding a daughter to that would just push them over the edge. So, with no other options, he took his baby daughter from her mother and hid her. First, Aria had lived with the god and his wife, Amphitrite, in their underwater palace. She spent her days with Nereids as her nannies, ocean nymphs as her sisters and playmates, and dolphins as her overprotective older brothers. It was only when she turned five that she began to realize that she was a bit different than her brothers and sisters. Before she could really understand that she didn't belong under the sea, her father moved to her California, where she lived with a mortal family who had no clue what their new adoptive daughter truly was. Aria imagined that they didn't really know what to do with a girl who cried because she couldn't see her mermaid friends or dolphin brothers. They must have thought she had a crazy imagination.

As all demigods do, Aria began attracting monsters. Because of her parentage, the monsters tended to be on the more deadly side. When the young girl woke up to a vicious hellhound slobbering all over her bed, Poseidon led her to Lupa, the immortal wolf goddess. And so, at ten years old, she left the mortal world behind. Lupa lead her to Camp Jupiter, where she trained and fought and tried to ignore the whispers and stares that came with being a daughter of Neptune. Romans didn't exactly love the sea, and that dislike extended to Aria. It didn't help that during her first war games, she panicked and made fifty-foot-high jets of water erupt from the earth around her, toppling anyone who had attacked thinking she would be an easy target. Instead, where she would've been openly bullied, her fellow campers feared her. In Aria's experience, fear made children do cruel things.

The only connection Aria had ever had with her father was the glowing trident that appeared over her head the night she arrived at camp. Other than that, there was no message, no kindly smile from above, nothing.

On particularly hard days, when her cabin mates would put rotten seaweed or dead fish in her bunk and act perfectly innocent when she found them, Aria would sneak into Neptune's temple on the hill, and talk to her father like he was actually there. She shared her troubles, fears, and the hope that one day her life might make sense.

And that's how she met Nico di Angelo.

One night, when Aria had brought her warmest blanket to curl up against the statue of Neptune, she was startled out of her thoughts by a boy who couldn't have been any older than eleven or twelve.

"Hey," he said, the light glinting off a deadly looking sword hanging at his side. "What are you doing in here?"

This boy didn't look like a camper – he wore a black t-shirt with a ghoulish silver skull emblazoned on it, instead of the standard purple shirt, and his hair hung into his eyes, not sheared into the standard regulation hair cut for boys. He must not know her yet as the freak water kid, she decided. Aria didn't know how to treat someone who didn't already know her as the shame of Camp Jupiter.

"This is my father's temple," she said, lifting her chin and tugging her blanket a little tighter around her body. This boy seemed to have brought the chilly outside air in with him.

The boy raised his eyebrows – they almost disappeared under his hair. "You're a child of Pos…Neptune?"

"Yes." Aria didn't like the way he was appraising her, almost like she was an enigma that he couldn't wait to crack. "Who are you?"

"Nico di Angelo, son of Ha…Pluto. My father sent me here as an ambassador."

"An ambassador?"

"He wanted somewhere safe for me to stay. I tend to get chased by monsters a lot," Nico said, his lips tilting up into a wry smile.

"Me, too," Aria said, warming up a little to this strange boy. "I had to come here when I was ten because it wasn't safe for me in the mortal world."

"It tends to be like that for children of the Big Three," Nico nodded.

Aria furrowed her brow. "The Big Three? What's that?"

The boy's eyes widened momentarily, as if he'd said too much. "Uh…it's more of a Greek concept than Roman, but the Greek counterparts of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto were thought to be more powerful than the other Olympians since they're the only sons of the Titan Saturn. So, their kids are usually more powerful and attract more monsters."

"So…Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades are some sort of big triumvirate?" Aria asked, frowning in confusion. This was the first she'd ever heard of possibly being more powerful than the kids that made her life hell. If what this boy was saying was true, she could finally make them dirt.

"Basically. Hey, what's your name?" Nico asked in an effort to change the subject.

"Aria Jackson," she said, sticking out her hand.

For a moment, Aria was sure that she'd done something to scare this child of Pluto – his eyes widened and his nostrils flared, and he looked like he was about to bolt from the dark temple.

And then the moment passed. "Nice to meet you," Nico said, taking her outstretched hand, but his smile wasn't the same as it had been before.

From then on, Nico was her only friend at camp. Every time he visited, she begged him to stay longer, just so she would have someone to talk to other than a dusty old statue of her father. When he was gone, Aria was even more miserable. The other campers found it hilarious that the two outcasts had made such fast friends, and kids would whisper about her when they thought she couldn't hear. It's a match made in hell, they said. Only the son of death would be attracted to that weirdo.

Aria let the whispers and rumors roll off her back like a duck under water, but each taunt and cruel word fed a fire inside of her. She channeled her anger into becoming more powerful than her tormentors. While her peers were socializing and enjoying their time as kids, she would sit near the Little Tiber and practice controlling the water to do her bidding. Aria suspected that salt water might be more responsive, as she was a child of the sea, but she wasn't allowed to go outside the border of Camp Jupiter. Who knew what deadly monsters lurked in the shadows, just waiting for a tasty snack to emerge?

By the time she was thirteen, it was taking all of her self-control not to drown anyone who taunted her. She imagined lifting her bullies on a skyscraper-high jet of water, only to let them come crashing down, shattering every bone in their body. She wasn't sure how much more she could take. She began to dream of escaping camp while no one was looking – sneaking out to discover the world on her own.

These dreams started to make more and more sense. Eventually, Aria started planning for the day that she would leave Camp Jupiter. She told no one of these plans, not even Nico. She knew that someone would try to stop her, or even worse, tell the praetors and get her punished. On the day of her departure, a cold November morning, she stopped in her father's temple to pray for guidance and possibly a little fatherly love.

That's where Nico found her.

"Hey," he said, letting the heavy door shut behind him. "I was looking for you…" he trailed off, noticing her bulging backpack and travel clothes. He raised an eyebrow. "Going somewhere?"

"Yeah," Aria said, lifting her chin in defiance. "I'm leaving this place. I've had enough."

Instead of trying to convince her to stay, or telling her to stop like she expected, Nico smiled. "It seems like my timing is perfect, then. I was actually trying to find you because I wanted to tell you – I'm taking you to New York."

"What?" Aria was sure she'd heard him wrong. "New York?"

"Manhattan, to be specific," he said. "There's someone I think you should meet. You in?"

What did she have to lose? She was planning on leaving anyway. Nico had just provided her with the perfect opportunity. "Yeah," she nodded. "I'm in."

* * *

Aria thought that her friend was pulling some sort of twisted practical joke when he told her that he was taking her to see her mother and brother.

"That's impossible," she shook her head. "My dad told me that my mom died giving birth to me, and that I didn't have any other family."

"I'm about ninety-eight percent sure your dad lied to you," Nico said, pulling her through the underground tunnels of the subway system.

"What? Nico, can you please explain what's going on?" Aria stopped short, tugging him around to face her.

"Just wait," he said, his eyes taking on a dangerous glint. "I'll answer all your questions once we get there."

 _There_ turned out to be a small but cozy apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Nico knocked on the door embossed with the gold number seven, waiting impatiently.

"Nico, are you sure this is a good idea?" Aria asked, shifting nervously, trying to wrench her hand out of his iron grip. "Maybe we should—"

Before she could suggest running away and pretending this never happened, the door swung open.

In the doorway stood a very pretty middle-aged woman, with wavy brown hair and kind eyes.

Aria inhaled sharply. She _knew_ this woman. She wanted to cry.

"Nico?" the woman said, smiling bemusedly. "What are you doing here?"

"Is Percy home?" Nico asked, trying to peer over the woman's shoulder into the apartment. Aria, on the other hand, was trying her best to disappear in into the carpet. She could feel the woman's gaze shift to her in question – _who was this strange girl standing in her doorway?_ – and all Aria could do was look down and pray that the ground would swallow her whole.

"Yeah, he just got home from school," she said. "Why don't you two come on inside?"

Aria might have chosen that moment to try and bolt, but Nico's unrelenting grasp on her hand made her follow him inside the apartment. The inside was cozy and welcoming, everything Aria imagined that a home always would be. The walls were decorated with pictures of the woman, a man with glasses, and a black-haired boy that seemed all too familiar.

Aria stopped looking at the pictures.

"Do you want anything to eat?" the woman slid a tray of blue cookies across the kitchen table, taking a seat in front of the two demigods. "They're fresh out of the oven."

Nico dug in right away. Aria couldn't bring herself to look the woman in the eye.

"I'm going to go get Percy," she said, not commenting on the fact that the strange girl was refusing to eat her strangely-colored cookies. "Be right back."

"Nico," Aria hissed, as soon as the woman was out of earshot. "What the _fuck_ were you thinking? You can't just drag me to some random person's house, I'm not related to these people—"

"Nico?" a new voice asked. "What are you doing here? And who's this?"

Aria looked up, and her heart stopped. Staring back at her was a fifteen-year-old boy with messy jet-black hair and bright green eyes… _her_ jet-black hair and _her_ bright green eyes. The similarities didn't end there. The boy wore an expression that she saw all too often in the mirror – confusion and a slight wariness, as if danger was just around the corner. She was looking at an older, male version of herself.

Nico swallowed his cookie whole. "Percy, this Aria. I'm pretty sure she's your sister."

* * *

Sally Jackson was everything Aria would've wanted in a mother. Except this woman _was_ her mother, she reminded herself.

Her mother's eyes were filling with tears, and Aria didn't know whether she wanted to run out the door or just sob.

"Poseidon told me you were dead," Sally said, her voice thick with emotion. "He told me that it wasn't safe for you in the mortal world, and that he'd raise you in his palace. And then one day, he came and told me that you had died in a freak accident."

"I did spend some time living in his palace," Aria admitted, uncomfortable with the way the woman – her _mother_ – was looking at her. Her expression was filled with sadness and love, and Aria could tell that the woman was stopping herself from hugging her long-lost daughter and never letting go. It was, after all, exactly what Aria wanted.

"Tell them where you grew up," Nico prompted. He was acting like a moderator on a reality TV show, happily consuming blue cookies.

Aria glanced at her brother. Percy hadn't spoken a word since Nico's declaration, only looking at her like he could read her life story if he stared hard enough.

"I think I lived with Poseidon until I was five or so," Aria said, fidgeting uncomfortably. "Then, well…I don't know the details around it, but I went to live with a mortal family. But then the monsters kept attacking, and it wasn't safe for me or the family I was living with—"

"Monsters?" Sally interrupted, looking around as if hellhounds had followed her daughter to New York.

"They tend to attack children of the Big Three, Mrs. Jackson," Nico said, chomping down on another cookie. Aria wanted to tell him not to talk with his mouth full.

"The Big Three?" Aria said, turning to look at Nico. "You said that was a Greek thing."

"Oh, yeah," Nico said nonchalantly. "You're a demigod daughter of Poseidon, not Neptune."

" _What?_ " Percy exclaimed, finally breaking his staring contest with Aria to look at Nico. "There are children of Neptune running around?"

"Not children of Neptune in particular," Nico gulped, looking a little frightened at Percy's expression. "But the gods have both Greek and Roman aspects. I think it has something to do with the fact that the founder of Rome was a son of Aphrodite, but the Romans' religious customs have always closely mirrored the Greeks. So the gods have two forms, Greek and Roman." Nico looked around the table at his captive audience. "But this information can't go beyond these four walls. I'm not even supposed to know about the two camps, let alone be telling other people."

"Two camps?" Percy pressed, his voice rising slightly in pitch.

"Yeah. Camp Half-Blood, here in New York, for Greek demigods, and Camp Jupiter in Northern California for Roman demigods."

"Roman demigods…" Percy breathed out. "I had no idea they even existed."

"Yeah, the gods try and keep it that way. Apparently, the Greeks and the Roman camps always fought, and eventually the fighting and bloodshed got so bad that the gods decided to just weave the Mist so tightly that the each side would forget that the other existed."

"So…" Aria started, raising her head to look at her family. "I'm not Roman, but Greek?"

Nico nodded. "I'm pretty sure your father tried to hide you because it was getting dangerous for children of the Big Three."

"Yeah, the whole World War II thing," Percy said. Aria guessed that her brother knew all too well about the stigma of being a child of Neptune, Poseidon, _whoever_. "So my father decided that taking her away and raising her himself was safer?"

"He didn't raise me," Aria said. When her brother's piercing gaze turned to her, she faltered. "I mean, I lived in his palace, but I almost never saw him. I haven't seen him since I was five, when he sent me to the mortal world. I don't know why he thought I'd be safe there…he could've just left me here."

She would've liked growing up here, Aria decided. Having a mother and brother sounded like heaven.

"He told me that you died in an accident," Sally said through her tears. "I think he used some sort of immortal persuasion to make me forget about you. I didn't even remember that I had a daughter until a couple years ago when something reminded me of you—" she broke off on a sob.

Aria wanted to get up and put her arms around her mother, but she didn't know this woman well enough to do so. And the way Percy was looking at her, she expected him to draw a weapon on her at any second.

"Poseidon probably knew that Zeus and Hades wouldn't tolerate another child that broke their oath," Percy said. "Besides, there's the matter of the prophecy. This could change everything."

"Ah, the prophecy," Nico said, looking a little uncomfortable. "Percy, since she also meets the description, you can't tell anyone that you know she exists."

"What? Why?"

"I think Poseidon's entire goal in hiding her was to make sure that she _wouldn't_ be the child of the prophecy. I mean, you're kind of already set up to fulfill it. You know Kronos personally—"

Aria choked. " _What?_ You know a Titan—?"

"It's a long story," Percy said.

"I have nothing but time," Aria countered. "I don't plan on going back to Camp Jupiter."

Her brother frowned at her. "Why?"

"They're not exactly…welcoming…to children of the sea god."

"Stay with us," Sally said suddenly. "Percy's in school right now, so he won't be going to camp. Stay with us, please…I want to get to know my daughter."

Aria's heart shattered.

"You already have everything packed," Nico said, nodding at the backpack by her feet. "Stay here for a bit, and we can figure out what to do next."

Aria looked down at her feet. In the span of about twenty minutes, her entire life had changed. If Nico, who was basically the only person she could trust, thought she should stay with these people, then she would. After all, she had so many questions about her life. Maybe she could finally get some answers.

"Okay," Aria said, looking from her mother to her brother. "Okay, I'll stay."

* * *

It turned out that Aria and Percy had a lot in common. Specifically, their tempers. During the couple months that they lived together under the same roof, Sally Jackson's water bill skyrocketed.

Sally and Percy had cleared out the small study in their apartment, giving Aria a haphazardly put-together bedroom and the only place she thought she'd ever call home. Sally seemed to be making up for the twelve years she lost with her daughter – every day was spent either taking her around New York, cooking her favorite foods, or just chatting until the sun came up. When January of the new year rolled around, the older woman insisted on registering her in the local middle school in seventh grade, for the sake of continuing her education. Unfortunately, this cut short their mother-daughter bonding time.

"It'll be fun," her mother insisted, handing her a blue lunchbox. "Think about all the new friends you'll make!"

Aria raised an eyebrow. "I'd probably enjoy fighting a monster more, mom."

Sally's smile widened, and her eyes began filling with tears, just as they had every time Aria called her 'mom.'

"My baby's first day of school," she laughed, wiping a stray tear from her eyes. "This is the first time I get to see my daughter off on her first day of school."

Aria ducked her head, embarrassed by the tears forming in her own eyes. She let her mother pull her into a hug, relishing in the feeling her mom's warm arms and the comforting scent of warm cookies.

"Alright," Percy interrupted from across the kitchen, standing ready with his backpack. "We're going to be late for school if you don't hurry up this tear-fest."

"Shut up," Aria muttered, grinning. "Let's go."

Luckily, her middle school and Percy's high school were on the same campus. He gave her a brief tour of the school before rushing off to his first class, promising that he'd find her at lunch.

Her classes were unremarkable. She was used to being in school on a daily basis, but in New Rome, she studied the history of the gods, other religions, complicated mathematics and physics, and much more. Here, in New York's standardized education system, her seventh grade class focused on how quickly the class bullies could make her teacher cry.

Lunch wasn't much better. Percy found her, as he promised, but he was closely followed by a mean-looking kid in a varsity football jacket.

"So," the kid said, plopping down at the same table Aria had chosen, a nasty smirk stretched across his face. "Weirdo's got a little sister."

Aria sighed. She'd been dealing with bullies much more dangerous than a jock with an ego complex since she was five. She knew his type – loud, arrogant, and probably some daddy issues to boot.

"Leave us alone, Brett," Percy scowled, throwing an arm around her shoulders. "It's her first day."

Aria appreciated her brother's protective nature, but she wondered what he would do if he knew what she was truly capable of.

Brett laughed, the sound grating on Aria's nerves. "But what better way to introduce her to our fine school? Someone needs to teach her who's in charge here."

Aria watched silently as Brett appraised her. The entire cafeteria was watching their table – this was probably some sort of hazing, she thought. She waited, bristling with anticipation.

Brett reached forward to snatch her blue lunch bag off the table – identical to the one Percy was gripping tightly. "Awww, does Mommy pack you a lunch too? Are both of you just widdle babies?"

Aria grinned, a feral smile that gave Percy goose bumps. "Try harder," she said. She could feel the power itching just beneath her skin, like an animal waiting to burst out.

Brett scowled. "What do you mean, try harder? Want me to show you what I can really do?"

Aria smiled calmly. "If you even _try_ to touch me, I'll make you piss your pants."

That was probably the wrong thing to say, but she was itching for a good fight. It had been ages since she'd sparred with anyone, and she was dying to use her powers again. Her anger towards her father, everyone at Camp Jupiter, and her whole situation was reaching a boiling point, and if Brett wasn't careful, he'd end up being her target.

Brett reached into her blue lunch bag, taking out the sandwich that Sally had packed for her this morning. He crushed it in his meaty fist. "Was that the lunch that your mommy packed for you this morning? I'm so sorr—"

Aria snapped. This bully had the nerve to take something her mother had made specifically for her. She focused intently on the blood rushing through her bully's body – if she thought hard enough, she could feel the blood rushing through everyone in the cafeteria – and she stopped it. It took a monumental effort, but just like she'd practiced, Brett froze. With a little smile on her face, Aria redirected the blood in his hand to pool at his wrist.

Brett's hand went limp, and he dropped her sandwich. The entire cafeteria held its breath.

Percy frowned, looking between his sister and her bully. "Aria, what's happening—"

"If Brett isn't careful, his death is going to happen," Aria said, a bit breathless from her efforts. "But can you feel that, Brett? Can you feel the blood rushing from your hand back into your arm? It doesn't feel good, does it?"

Brett's eyes were beginning to bulge out of his head. His wrist was an ugly shade of puce, and it was starting to swell uncontrollably. His hand was a deathly shade of white, and it was so limp it looked boneless. His mouth was opening and closing like a fish, but nothing was coming out.

Aria smiled, crossing her hands in front of her calmly. "If I try hard enough, I'm pretty sure I can stop the blood flow to your brain. Would you like to find out?"

Brett shook his head back and forth frantically.

Aria relaxed, focusing on letting his blood flow normally again. "I wouldn't recommend messing with either of us, Brett." She reached across the table to take back her lunch bag. "Don't test me."

Once he recovered, Brett the bully left their table so fast he knocked the entire bench over. Aria watched coolly as he skittered back to a table littered with varsity-jacket clad jocks. She looked around, realizing that the entire cafeteria was still staring at her, including some of the teachers on supervision duty.

She sighed, turning to Percy. "Maybe we should leave."

"Yeah, maybe we should," her brother frowned, his expression unreadable. "You need to explain what you just did. Let's go."

* * *

Aria could tell that Percy was shocked by her ability to control blood. The possibility had never occurred to him, even though he was well aware of his ability to control water.

"Let me get this straight." Her pacing brother swiveled to face her, a scowl firmly in place on his face. "You can feel the blood moving through people's bodies."

She nodded.

"You can stop it if you feel like."

Another nod.

" _How?_ "

She paused, looking down at her feet. Aria wasn't quite sure how to answer the question. She had just always been able to. One day she was controlling water, and the next day she learned in science class that the human body was seventy percent water, and then she was controlling blood too.

"Aria?" her brother questioned, crouching down in front of where she was sitting on the bench, placing himself slightly below her. "You gotta tell me what's going on, sweetie. Not a lot of people know about you, and even fewer are concerned with your safety. I'd rather be able to protect you than be kept in the dark."

A gentle hand was under her chin, bringing her eyes up to his. Percy's expression had softened into one of worry, and suddenly her brother seemed much older than his fifteen years. So Aria told him about her secret practicing back at camp, and how blood felt so similar to water that there was virtually no difference. She told him about the campers that bullied her, how they would suddenly be afflicted with unstoppable nosebleeds or cuts that just wouldn't go away. She wasn't a monster, she told him softly. She had to do what she could to protect herself.

"Demigods should protect their own," Percy said unhappily. "Whoever these kids are, they better hope they don't meet me."

That was when Aria realized that other than Nico, who only appeared in her life occasionally, she had one true ally – someone who would protect her. That was when Percy earned her unwavering loyalty, and it would someday save his life.

Not that either of them knew it then, of course.


End file.
